At the beginning of the Christian era, Jerusalem was a great city, one of the most beautiful in the world. Never in its history had it enjoyed such splendor as that brought about by the ambitious project Herod the Great had planned for it and begun to carry out. This grand renovation of the Holy City, carried out in parallel with the expansion and embellishment of the temple, began in 20 BC and continued until 63 AD. Therefore, when Jesus visited, the city was still under construction. He would see some projects well underway, such as the renovation of the temple, but most were already completed by the year 30 AD—that is, the time when Jesus would preach to the people and when he would be nailed to the Cross.
Literary references from that period to the population seem greatly exaggerated. Flavius Josephus states that, on the occasion of a gathering of pilgrims for the Passover festival, some three million people assembled in the city; and when recounting the casualties of the Roman siege, he notes that ninety-seven thousand prisoners were taken during the entire war, and that one million one hundred thousand people were killed during the siege of Jerusalem. Although these numbers do not seem credible, it was one of the largest and most populous cities in the Roman Empire. Taking into account the extent of the archaeological remains from that period and the typical density of the urban population at that time, it can be estimated that it had just over one hundred thousand permanent residents, although the population could reach three hundred thousand during the large gatherings for the Passover celebrations.
Western wall of Old Jerusalem
Before Herod, the Hasmonean kings—especially John Hyrcanus—had built a robust system of defenses for the city. The oldest and most prestigious parts of the city, the Temple Mount and the Ophel Hill, were already protected by an ancient wall, which, following repairs and reinforcement, was restored to its former glory. New sections of the wall had also been built in the 1st century BCE to protect the Upper City and the Tyropeon Valley. Herod completed the city’s defenses by constructing a wall in the northern sector and repairing all the previous ones.
Cisterns built by Herod to supply water to Jerusalem
A city of such size, with the grandeur that Herod sought to bestow upon it, required a robust urban infrastructure. For this reason, the layout of the new streets was carefully planned according to a geometric design, as far as the terrain allowed, and an excellent water supply system was developed. To this end, cisterns and large reservoirs were built to collect rainwater and water flowing in from the surrounding streams. But above all, a water supply system was constructed from Artas, south of Bethlehem, to the capital, via a twenty-one-kilometer-long conduit, which also had to cross several elevation changes in the terrain via aqueducts. This colossal water supply system was further expanded during the time of Pontius Pilate to allow for the collection of water and its delivery to Jerusalem from a distance of sixty-seven kilometers. In the most important areas of the city, in addition to the water supply, sanitation and sewerage works were carried out.
By Fr. Francisco Varo Pineda, priest